Monday, March 2, 1998Last modified at 12:44 a.m. on Monday, March 2, 1998

'South Park' hip cartoon with no boundaries

Comedy network's fab four snowballing in popularity

Associated Press

Sally Struthers implores television viewers to sponsor a poor African child for $5 a month, and Cartman, Stan, Kyle and Kenny jump at the chance so they can get a free digital sports watch.

Instead, the foul-mouthed cast of the bizarre cartoon "South Park" is sent a real-life emaciated "Ethernopian" whom they nickname "Starvin' Marvin" and bring to their third grade class for show-and-tell.

When authorities arrive to return "Starvin' Marvin," they mistakenly take the fat - er, big-boned - Cartman, who discovers Struthers has hoarded a warehouse full of snack foods in the African desert.

Sadly, Kenny is killed by a pack of rabid mutant turkeys during a "Braveheart"-like fight against the fictional Colorado town. But not to worry, he's killed in every episode except "Mr. Hankey the Christmas Poo," and returns each week for more.

OK, so this isn't the most highbrow TV show of all time. But maybe that's why the Comedy Central Network cartoon has gained such a cult following since its debut last summer, snowballing in popularity every week.

In February alone the "South Park" tykes graced the covers of Spin and Rolling Stone. Like Bart Simpson a few years ago, T-shirts with images of the waddling pack appear everywhere. There's even talk of a "South Park" movie.

The Feb. 18 episode about a Godzilla-like Barbra Streisand who trashes the town was seen in 3.2 million homes, the cable network's highest-ever rated show.

"The political correctness that we all operate under is so great that this is like a pressure release," says Deborah Liebling, the show's executive producer. "What's appropriate is thrown out the window. There's a joy in watching all these forbidden things being said."

"Seinfeld" may be in its stretch run, but "South Park" (which airs Wednesdays at 10 p.m. EST) is the show everybody wants to talk about at parties, on the Internet and at the office cooler. It's a cartoon with no boundaries when it comes to skewering modern life - Kathie Lee Gifford, UFO sightings and Hanukkah vs. Christmas debates, to name just a few.

It has also revitalized the career of Isaac Hayes. The soul singer provides the voice of Chef, the school's tubby cafeteria cook who often breaks into song with R-rated lyrics about "sweet love."

The "South Park" principals are four bug-eyed friends dressed in parkas, mittens and snowcaps whose salty language (the harsher words are always bleeped out) belies their age. But it's the little eccentricities that set them apart.

Eric Cartman is known simply by his last name. He's the roly-poly wiseacre who never turns down an offer for Cheesy Poofs but denies he's fat. He's just big-boned or "pleasingly plump." His mother once appeared on the cover of Crack Whore magazine.

Stan Marsh is the group's leader. He gets beaten up by his sister, Shelly, who's angry at life because she has to wear orthodontic headgear. He vomits in his girlfriend Wendy's face whenever she talks to him. His dog, Sparky, is gay.

Kyle Broslofski is constantly reminded that he's Jewish. He beats up his baby brother Ike by kicking him like a football. In one episode, his pet elephant had sex with a pig.

Kenny McCormick comes from a poor family and has the dirtiest mouth, although only his friends can understand the muffled sounds that come from inside his orange snowsuit hood. He dies in every episode, prompting the show's most quoted line, "Oh my God, they killed Kenny!"

Bob Thompson, director of Syracuse University's Center for the Study of Popular Television, says shock value is the obvious reason these cartoon characters are such a hit.

"You're channel surfing and there's another talk show and another music video and then you hit `South Park,' " says Thompson. "It's really hard to stop because it looks so different, the language is so unusual."

And vulgar.

Like the holiday episode in which Kyle compensates for not celebrating Christmas by imagining he has a fecal friend named Mr. Hankey. Tasteless? Of course. But to the fans, it's uncontrollably funny.

Thompson has found that unlike the male-oriented "Beavis and Butt-head," "South Park" for some reason seems to be just as popular with women as men.

One demographic group that no doubt has fueled the momentum of "South Park" has been the computer generation.

There are at least 100 "South Park" Web sites that include sounds, games and inside information on the show. Some offer their own scripts while Eric J. Egolf wrote an elegiac poem to Kenny entitled "A Tribute to a Fallen American Hero":

"By touch of Death or microwave/Or Mir upon his head/Or a vicious attack by Jay Leno's chin/The poor boy turns out dead."

Dave Burchill, whose Web site has attracted 35,000 visitors since October, is such a devoted fan that he and his girlfriend built a snowman in the image of Cartman on the roof of his house in Miramichi, Canada.

"I've never seen so many people so fast take such a liking to a show," says Burchill, 19. "The first episode I ever saw I laughed so hard. My mom covered her face and eyes with her hands. The real reason I think she didn't want to watch was she didn't want to laugh at that kind of material in front of us."

The story of the show's origin is now legendary among "South Park" fanatics. Three years ago an executive at 20th Century Fox gave Matt Stone and Trey Parker $2,000 to make a video he could send as a Christmas card. They made the video using construction paper cutouts and spent only $750, pocketing the rest of the money.

The result was the five-minute short "The Spirit of Christmas," in which the boys meet Jesus who fights Mortal Kombat-style with Santa Claus ("Ho ho ho. We meet again, Jesus"). Figure skater Brian Boitano makes a cameo and Kenny is decapitated, his first of many deaths to come.

Bootlegs of the tape began circulating throughout Hollywood, which led to a deal with Comedy Central to develop an animated series based on the short, albeit without the obscenities that were laced in the language of the original.

"I just saw a sophisticated sense of humor behind the language," Liebling says. "It was clear to me that there was a world that could be created beyond kids cursing."

Not everyone is laughing at Stone and Parker's creation, and some critics are complaining that the newer episodes of "South Park" have lost some steam. Others say the show is just plain vile.

As for Stone and Parker, the co-creators have stopped talking to reporters for the time being. A Comedy Central spokeswoman says the duo is worn out and the show doesn't need any more publicity.

The cable channel certainly hasn't had to deal with outraged parental groups such as the ones who attacked "Beavis and Butt-head" for being bad influences and "The Simpsons" for eroding family values.

In fact, there has been little criticism of "South Park" despite its raunchiness and the harsh TV-MA rating. The episode about Stan's gay dog has even been nominated for an award by the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation.

The only controversy seems to be a Connecticut middle school that reportedly has banned students from wearing T-shirts showing a decapitated Kenny.

It may be a matter of time before mainstream America and conservative organizations realize the show exists. But by then it may no longer matter, says Thompson, who predicts "South Park" won't endure.

"I've got a feeling it's going to be like `Twin Peaks' - a brilliant 20 or 30 hours of TV, but that's it," he says. "These kids basically have a 40-word vocabulary. After we've heard those 40 words 40,000 times, enough is enough."

"It's kind of like Fat Albert and the kids gone totally into meltdown phase."